Former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who returns to action at heavyweight next month at UFC 285, is charting a course through his new weight class.
Jones (26-1, 1NC) will face Ciryl Gane in the main event of the March 4, 2023 PPV card, with the promotion’s vacant heavyweight title on the line. And if all goes according to plan, it will be the man he considers the “greatest heavyweight of all time” up next for “Bones.”
That would be Stipe Miocic.
“I’ve got my sights on Stipe Miocic,” Jones said during a Twitter spaces session with Kanpai Pandas. “I think it just means the most. It means the most. There’s some really exciting fights out there, there’s guys that are more intimidating than Stipe, but for my personal legacy, to be able to defeat the greatest heavyweight of all-time, it just means the most to me.”
“As far as how soon, hopefully I get out of this fight with no serious injuries, but I’d like to get out there [again] as soon as possible. My goal is anywhere from two to three fights depending on how the fights look.”
Jones also revealed that his contract has eight fights on it. The deal was restructured with his move to heavyweight from 205lbs, making it more lucrative — but the number of fights remained the same.
“I had eight fights left on my contract, I just wasn’t happy with my percentages. We just bumped up the pay and pretty much picked up where we left off as far as my commitment to the UFC. Hopefully I can get through all eight fights, that’s a lot of fighting at 35-years old. But we’ll see.”
The former light heavyweight champion also said training camp for Gane was going well.
“It’s healthy, it’s competitive, no one’s hurting each other,” Jones said of his training camp, which saw him put out a call for training partners after many of his usual names had retired. According to Jones, he wound up with roughly 400 responses almost immediately.
At least some of that training camp, Jones noted, will appear on an upcoming UFC 285 Countdown video.
